George b



(No Model.)

G. B.. FIELD. MEANS FOR BURNING STRAW, GORNSTALKS, &c.

No. 463,249. Patented Nov. 1'7, 1891..

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. FIELD, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

MEANS FOR BURNING STRAW, CORNSTALKS, 840..

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 463,249, dated November 17, 1891.

Application filed August ll 1891. Serial No. 402,376. (No model- New York, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Burning Straw, Cornstalks, and Such Like Fuel, of which the following is a specification.

As is well known in many sections of considerablearea in the United States and elsewhere, it is difficult, and at times impossible, to secure coal or wood for fuel, and even when it may be had its expense is such as to impose a heavy burden upon the consumer. Especially is this true with reference to farmers and other persons living at points removed from railroads, because in addition to the enhanced price of fuel the labor of transporting it from the railroad to the place of consumption is very great It is well known that in some localities fuel famines have at times been so severe and transportation facilities so deficient that farmers have been compelled to burn corn forcooking and heating purposes. This extraordinary condition has been brought about partly by scarcity of fuel and partly by the fact that the rates of transportation of farm products were so high that there was no profit to the farmer in sending them to market. On all farms where wheat, oats, barley, rye, or corn is grown there is produced in weight as much or more straw or stalks as grain. The cornstalks may be used only to a limited extent for fodder, the straw has only a restricted use, and the supplies both are always largely in excess of the demands to which they may be usefully or economically applied. In the absence of sufficient quantities of straw or cornstalks, to be utilized as presently described, there is always an ample supply of weeds, which may be mowed, permitted to dry, and accumulated in stacks. This material,whether straw, constalks, weeds, or similar vegetable growth in a dried condition, forms the fuel which I purpose burning in the manner and in the improved apparatus herein described.

It is the purpose of my invention to provide an apparatus in which such fuel may be burned efficiently with little if any trouble to :the users for all domestic purposes. On all farms there is an abundant supply of fuel of this character that ordinarily is not utilized in any way and is a waste production; but when utilized in the manner proposed the farmer will not be required to make any expenditure either of cash or labor for obtaining coal or wood.

The invention consists in employing a magazine, in which the straw, &c., is packed in such manner that there is formed in the body of the fuel and passing through it a draft fine or orifice that is surrounded on all sides by the fuel. The magazine is open at each end of the flue, and is to be removably placed in any suitable holder,support, or stove-casing in such manner that the draft-flue therein is in an upright position, or substantially so, and so that the air to support cornbustion is admitted by means of suitable draft devices at the bottom and passes up through the flue in the fuel. The fuel may be lighted at the top and the products of combustion conducted off in any convenient way.

All cooking operations may be conducted over the top ofthe magazine-such, for instance, as boiling, broiling, &c.-aud, if it is desired to bake, a Dutch oven may be placed over the fuel-magazine or permanent ovens may be provided as part of the stove.

In carrying out my invention I compress the straw or other ,material into a cylinder, the package forming a magazine to be placed in a stove designed for the combustion of the material. In practice I prefer to compress the material in an iron cylinder by means of any suitable compressor, or it may be done by hand or trampled in with the feet. The cylinder in which the straw is compressed may haye solid walls and be open entirely or partly at top and bottom, .or the walls may have any desired number of perforations, openings, or apertures therein. The only requisite is that the holder, of whatever material or however constructed, should be of a proper character and of suificient strength to retain the compressed straw or other material therein. I pack the material in the cylinder or holder around a core, which may subsequently be withdrawn, thus leaving a draft fine or orifice through the body of the fuel.

Figure 1 is a detail sectional view on the line 1 1 of Fig. 3, looking in the direction of the arrow; Fig. 2, a plan View, partly broken away and in section; Fig. 3, a vertical section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a front elea seat or support for the compressed fuel. vation, with one side broken away and in sec- The fuel is compressed in this cylinder around tion. Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view of one a core 04:,Fig. 5, which may be subsequently 7 form of my improved fuel-cartridge, the corewithdrawn, thus leaving a draft opening or 5 piece around which the fuel is packed being orifice y through the body of the fuel centrally shown partly withdrawn; Fig. 6, a detail view with reference to the fuel, that equally surshowingacircumferentially-corrugatedmagarounds it on all sides. The walls of the cylzine or cylinder. inder may be transversely corrugated, as in 7 I have shown a fully-organized eooking- Fig. 6, so as to take hold of and retain the IQ stove. The base A of the stove, which may compressed fuehpreventing its expandingout be cast, forms a flat chamber upon which the of the top of the cylinder. The compressed body B is mounted. The particular stove fuel, considered without reference to a holder illustrated is formed with a magazine or comor cylinder into which it is compressed, may 8 bustion-chamber on each side of two ovens be considered a cartridge or magazine, be- C 0, arranged one above the other, which, tocause any means of binding the compressed gether with the partitions c a, divide the stovefuel together maybe employed. For instance, body transversely to form the two chambers. a wrapping of wire wouldbe sufficient. ()neach side of the ovens doors B are pro- The operation is as followsrA fuel-maga- 8 vided for the insertion of the fuel-magazine zine having been placed in position and the X. The magazines are arranged in avertical draft properly adjusted, the fuel may be position, or nearly so, and rest upon the top lighted at either the top or bottom. 7 The air of the base A and overdraft-apertures t'heresupplied to the interiorof the magazine mainin. Each of these apertures (Z is provided tains perfect combustion within the b'ore of 9 with a slide-valve or damper d, operated by the fuel, and more especi'ally at or near its l a handle d extending through the base to the base, and the superincumb'ent massof fuel exterior of the stove, and by means of which gradually sinks. In practice I haveburneda the draft of air through the magazine may be fuel-magazine containing ten pounds of straw regulated. during a period of four 'hours and have 'con- 9 Flues c lead from the top of each combusducted with perfect facility various cooking Lion-chamber into the ash-pit or hollow base, operations. Bread, meat, 'fowls, 650., may be and the smoke-outlet F communicates with perfectly baked in the ovens, and boiling, fryboth fines. The bottom of each flue may be ing, stewing, and broiling may be done over opened or closed by a slide-valve or damper the stove-holes in the usual way. \Vhere it 1 f, operated by a rod f, extending to the exis desired to maintain afire in the stove over 3 5 terior of the stove. night, by proper regulation of the draft the Below each door 13 the base is provided fuel may be maintained in slow combustion with a suitable door 9 for the entrance of air and will last many hours. and to permit the removal of ashes, The I have shown myinvention applied to'cook- 1 valve or damper cl being moved so as to uning-stoves; but obviously such magazines may 0 cover the opening d, over which the magazine be burned in similar stoves for heating purstands, and the flue ebeing'closed at the botposes. The cylindersmay readily be removed tom of the valve f, air entering at 9 passes up when the fuel therein is exhausted and through the draft-orifice in the f uel-magazine freshly-charged magazines introduced. 1 and by the flue cout through the smoke-pipe In order to facilitate the packing of the 5 F. hen it is desired tolslow down the :fire, eornstalks in the cylinders, they may be the aperture d is closed and the bottom of the crushed or mangled, as straw is in a thrashingflue 6 opened. Such air as now enters the machine, or maybe cut by being run through.

base will pass directly up the fines e and an ordinary straw-cutter. 1 L thence into the smoke-pipe without passing I claim as my invention 7 through the magazine. 1. A portable fuel-magazine consisting'of a The top of the stove may be provided with holder havingstraw, 'cornstalks, o r's'uch like any desired number of stove-holes of standfuel therein, with a draft-flue formed in, exard size. In Fig. 2 I have shown alarge ringtendingthrough, and surrounded on all sides 1 seated in the top of the stove, and in this ring by the fuel, in combination with a holder or the ordinary stove-lids h of standard size, are stove-casing adapted to receive and hold the seated. The magazine is indicated by the magazine in an upright position and condotted circle. It is obvious that by lifting stru'eted to supply air to support combustion the ring 72. from its seat the magazine might to the lower end of said draft-flue. 1 be dropped into position through the top of 2. Aportable fuel magazine'consistingof a the stove. metal cylinder open at both ends and having The casing in which fuel of the character straw, eornstalks, or such like fuel therein, described is to be compressed may, as before with a draft-flue formed centrally in and ex stated, he of any suitable shape or character tending through the fuel,in combination with 1 adapted to accomplish the objects of my ina holder or stove-casing adapted to receive vention. I have shown a metalcylinder open and hold the magazine in an upright position am at the top and having an opening win the base and constructed to supply air to support comof less diameterthan the cylinder, so as to form bustion to the lower end of said draft-flue.

3. A portable fuel-magazine consisting of a metal cylinder circumferentially corrugated, open at both ends, and having straw, cornstalks, or such like fuel therein, with a draftflue formed centrally in and extending through the fuel, in combination with a holder or stove-casing adapted to receive and hold the magazine in an upright position and constructed to supply air to support combustion to the lower end of said draft-flue.

4. The combination of a stove-casing, its base, a draft-aperture in or at the base, and a fuel magazine or charge consisting of a mass of straw, cornstalks, or such like fuel suitably held together and having formed therein and extending therethrough a draftflue, the stove-casing being adapted to receive the charge of fuel in an upright position with the draft-flue in the fuel over said draft-aperture.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

GEORGE E. FIELD. Witnesses:

FRANK S. OBER, EDWARD O. DAVIDSON. 

